Cruise Ship Waste Management

It is no surprise that cruise ships generate large amounts of solid waste. With increasing passenger carrying capacity, cruise ship owners are looking for new ways to minimize, repurpose, and utilize waste to generate energy onboard. Terragon’s MAGSTM technology will play an important role with existing ships, as well as with the redesign of cruise ships, and changes in overall waste management onboard.

The current ship designs include many different types of pre-processing equipment, such as: digesters, de-watering technologies, shredders, compactors, and typically, two very large incinerators. This is effectively a centralized approach to waste management; a practice commonly used on land. It is not only expensive to install, operate, and maintain; but also requires a large amount of space onboard. Using the MAGS technology, a decentralized approach in combination with other sustainable practices is advised (recycling, repurposing food).

Strategically placed, MAGS units would not only enable the continuous and immediate processing of waste as it is generated – effectively replacing the trash bin – but enable a network of distributed energy generation. The energy can be used in many different ship systems, essentially anywhere hot water is needed. Freeing up the extra space dedicated to large waste processing rooms and incinerator footprints may also enable revenue generation from added state rooms.